Democrats opposed to Senate vote on PM

THE DEMOCRAT PARTY is against asking referendum voters whether to allow selected senators to join elected MPs in choosing a new prime minister after the next general election, party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday.

Abhisit said that such a move would tantamount to tampering with democratic principles and the government would have problems running the country.

“Even the CDC [Constitution Drafting Commission] opposes the move because it fears the public would be confused,’’ he said.

Abhisit called on the government to reveal its solution if the charter draft were rejected in the referendum.

Democrat Party deputy leader Nipit Intarasombat said he believed having an additional question in the referendum, apart from rejecting or accepting the charter draft, would be against the charter because it did not make such a provision.

“It will contradict the charter draft because the proposal to have senators vote in the PM had been opposed and the CDC had thus removed it from the draft,’’ he said.

CDC spokesman Udom Rathamarit questioned who was behind the proposal to have an additional referendum question relating to whether senators should be allowed to vote in the PM during the five-year interim period following the general election.

Udom said the move had nothing to do with the CDC. “We do not know if someone has issued such an order or people who are behind the move have any motive,’’ he said.

He admitted that the CDC felt uneasy about the question but it would be up to the voters to decide. If the people agree with the proposal, the CDC was ready to amend the charter draft, he said.

National Reform Steering Assembly member Wanchai Sornsiri said that since the NRSA resolved with 136 votes to propose the question as an additional question in the referendum, the National Legislative Assembly would accept the proposal for consideration. “We believe the proposal is weighty,’’ he said.

Somchai Sawaengkarn, secretary of the special committee gathering opinions to decide the referendum questions, said the committee would make its decision on the NRSA proposal tomorrow together with six questions proposed by NLA committees. 

He said the NRSA’s decision to push for its proposed question had not put undue pressure on the committee as the proposal carried weight.

He said the NLA had the right to make the final decision on the matter based on the interim charter.

An NLA source said that in accordance with the draft bill on a public referendum, the CDC would have the role of disseminating the content of the charter to the public in line with CDC chairman Meechai Ruchupan’s wishes. 

The bill states that the CDC has the right to ask for the cooperation of all state agencies to disseminate the content of the charter draft, the source said, adding the move would not be seen as an attempt to campaign for voter support to reject or accept the draft or not vote.

The source said the bill stated member of the public did not have the right to campaign for or against the charter draft but could express their views on its content.

The NLA special committee looking at the bill for the public referendum warned the public against expressing opinions about the charter draft and to not distort the truth as it would be deemed illegal. 

“By saying that the charter draft is not democratic because it allows a non-elected PM could be a distortion of the truth because the draft said MPs vote in the PM,’’ the source said.

NLA president Pornpetch Wichitcholchai said any campaign to reject or accept the charter draft could be done depending on the intention of the campaign. 

He said the courts would decide if a social media campaign on the draft, for instance, would be a violation of the Computer Act. “If the messages are distortions of the truth, it would be illegal,’’ he said.

He said the government would be in control of the situation if there were conflicts between opponents and supporters of the draft.

He hoped the draft would be passed in the referendum because it was written to help steer the country out of the crisis.